XBOX 360 & XP Media Center FAQ

[max_fenig]

I just posted this up to my blog and plan to keep it up to date with anything interesting I find out so I thought I'd post it here too:

I’ve recently spent a fair amount of time setting up my XBOX360 to work with my home office desktop running Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). Along the way I’ve had to make some discoveries for myself so here I’ve compiled my lessons learnt into a series of guidelines and FAQs that will hopefully help others.

Q. Can I have my MCE PC be a member of a Windows domain and connect my XBOX360 as an extender device at the same time?

A. No. Even though there are techniques for joining a Windows XP MCE PC to a Windows domain and they do work, doing so will disable Fast User Switching which is required by the XBOX360 (or any other MCE extender) to access the Media Center application on the PC. It may initially work immediately after you have run the XBOX360 setup software on your PC but once the PC has been rebooted your XBOX360 will fail to connect. You can have one or the other, but not both.

Q. How do I get Windows XP Media Center Edition?

A. MCE is only available as an OEM operating system and so can usually only be acquired by purchasing a PC with MCE pre-installed by the vendor. However those with an MSDN subscription will find that MCE is included with the other OS variants such as Tablet PC and x64 edition.

Q. Do I need special hardware to run Windows XP Media Center Edition?

A. No, although it can be fussy about the drivers you use for certain components. Your video card will generally require an MCE specific version of the driver in order to function correctly and you may find the same applies for your soundcard. TV tuners require BDA drivers to work with MCE and you can find numerous models that have been specifically designed for use in MCE. I am using a Hauppage Nova-T-500 MCE Dual-digital PCI tuner.

Q. How does the XBOX360 connect to my PC running MCE?

A. Firstly your XBOX360 must be connected to the same network segment as your MCE PC. There have been reports by some users that you can get them to connect over bridged or even routed networks but results vary. If you can, use a wired network connection. Wireless tends to be problematic when streaming video unless your signal strength is consistently excellent. Microsoft recommends using 802.11a wireless gear instead of 802.11g due to problems with interference in the band that 802.11g uses from common household appliances, etc. The actual interface you see on you TV is streamed from the MCE PC via the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) just like terminal services or Remote Desktop. The video and TV is streamed over a different dedicated port to the MCE interface.

Q. Does the XBOX360 support MCE plug-ins and add-in applications?

A. Yes. Most MCE plug-ins will work without issue when accessed by the XBOX360. I am personally using My Movies, NewsGator MCE Edition and MCEBrowser without any issues.

Q. What video formats can I stream to playback via my XBOX360?

A. All video is streamed from your MCE PC to the XBOX360 and is then decoded by the XBOX360. This means only a set list of video formats can be showed by your XBOX360. Installing new codecs on your MCE PC will not help. The XBOX360 will support MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video as well as Windows Media Video (WMV). High definition in both formats is also supported. It will not support .VOB files ripped from DVDs. Trying to rename them to .MPG files and playing them back can cause the XBOX360 to crash, badly, so don’t try it. See below for details on how to playback ripped DVD files.

Q. I have lots of DivX/XviD files I won’t to be able to playback via my XBXO360. What can I do?

A. There are two solutions to this problem, both with their pros and cons. Firstly, you can use a program called Transcode360 to automatically transcode non-supported video formats into a format the XBOX360 can playback (MPEG-2) on the fly. It installs as a Windows Service and some extensions to the MCE interface. It allows you to select a video file from the MCE interface and then via the “Info” button on the remote choose a menu option that will be begin transcoding the file for playback on the XBOX360. The second option is to re-encode all of your video files into a format that the XBOX360 can playback, such as MPEG-2 or WMV. There are numerous tools available to do this, some free, others not. My personal preference is the second option as the resultant files are natively supported by the XBOX360 and result in a much better user experience for the rest of your family.

Q. Can I rip my DVDs to my MCE computer so that I can play them back on my XBOX360?

A. Yes. I won’t go into the legal issues surrounding the copying of DVDs so for this example let’s assume you have a non-protected DVD such as a home video from a DVD camcorder. I use a tool called DVD-WMW that provides a front end to various other tools that are needed to complete the process successfully. This program will extract the video and audio information from the DVD and encode it to WMV and WMAPro with full 5.1 surround sound support if desired. It provides plenty of options for fine-tuning the output and can even encode 2 different versions at the same time, perhaps one for the XBOX360 and another for your smartphone. I find that encoding with WMV at around 2Mbps produces a file of excellent quality at around ¼ the size of the original DVD file. You can then use the excellent and free My Movies plug-in to create a browseable library of your collection, complete with cover images, descriptions, actor information and more.
** UPDATE **: I've since experienced some issues with some of the files created by DVD-WMV regarding aspect ratios and audio blips and am reverting back to straight MPEG2 instead. I am using DVD-Decrypter to rip the DVDs to VOB and then VLC Media Player to change the container format from VOB to MPEG2, leaving both the video and audio streams intact. This results in an MPEG2 file that the XBOX 360 will happily play including the orginal digital soundtrack.

Q. Why does some of my music not display its album cover picture in My Music?

A. I’ve found that MP3 files aren’t as well supported by the Media Center library as WMA files. Try re-encoding your files as WMA (from the source if you can) for better results.

Q. Can I use Messenger on my XBOX360?

A. Yes. You need to make sure that Windows Messenger is enabled on your MCE PC (in Add/Remove Programs, Windows Components). You probably use MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger when on your MCE PC but Media Center only supports Windows Messenger so it must be enabled (although you can set it to not start automatically). To enter text into messenger use the XBOX360 on-screen keyboard or connect a keyboard to one of the USB ports. Most wireless keyboards will work as long as they don’t usually require software installation.

[DTB]

Great work Max.

It answers a lot of questions I had when I first purchased my 360. It might a good idea to use this thread as a bit of a FAQ that people can contribute to regarding using the 360 as an extender.

Cheers

Darren

[Nudge]

Max,

Good info, couple of questions.

Q. How do I get Windows XP Media Center Edition?

A. MCE is only available as an OEM operating system and so can usually only be acquired by purchasing a PC with MCE pre-installed by the vendor. However those with an MSDN subscription will find that MCE is included with the other OS variants such as Tablet PC and x64 edition.

Actually anyone can purchase a copy through places like AusPCMarket, comes bundled with remote or keyboard.

Q. Does the XBOX360 support MCE plug-ins and add-in applications?

A. Yes. Most MCE plug-ins will work without issue when accessed by the XBOX360. I am personally using My Movies, NewsGator MCE Edition and MCEBrowser without any issues.

How did you get MyMovies to work with 360, I gather you converted DVD's to WMV but I still have issues just getting the 2 to talk nice. see thread. My Movies shows up on 360 but then there must be permissions issues.

Later,

Nudge

[max_fenig]

How did you get MyMovies to work with 360, I gather you converted DVD's to WMV but I still have issues just getting the 2 to talk nice. see thread. My Movies shows up on 360 but then there must be permissions issues.

I didn't do anything special at all. I just downloaded My Movies 2 from the link on WindowsMarketplace, installed it and it all worked. I thought it was a little strange you had to configure a folder for each video (WMV) file, but that's no biggy of course and once I did that it worked a treat.

I already had IIS installed and running on the MCE machine before I installed My Movies 2, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

[AshW]

Thanks for the info Max_Fenig

Question: When you rip your DVD's to WMV format do you keep the DTS 5.1 surround sound or just WMAPro? I'm not sure that many A/V recievers could decode WMAPro to 5.1 if you are outputting via SPDIF.

[AlphA]

Thats some awesome information that you have posted up! * Didnt know I could plug in a USB KB thats awesome..

Check out my adventures with XBOX 360 Media center networking..

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...html#post90502

[max_fenig]

Thanks for the info Max_Fenig

Question: When you rip your DVD's to WMV format do you keep the DTS 5.1 surround sound or just WMAPro? I'm not sure that many A/V recievers could decode WMAPro to 5.1 if you are outputting via SPDIF.

WMAPro I believe. I don't have digital sound in my setup so it is isn't an issue for me at the moment but I can see it would be for others. I haven't seen any information around about how the XBOX360 outputs WMAPro over SPDIF, that is whether it can re-encode it on the fly to Dolby 5.1 or DTS like some sound cards can. I greatly doubt it but I'd like to know for sure none the less.

[scritch]

WMAPro I believe. I don't have digital sound in my setup so it is isn't an issue for me at the moment but I can see it would be for others. I haven't seen any information around about how the XBOX360 outputs WMAPro over SPDIF, that is whether it can re-encode it on the fly to Dolby 5.1 or DTS like some sound cards can. I greatly doubt it but I'd like to know for sure none the less.

There is nothing publicly mentioned by Microsoft, but I can state from all of my own tests on my MCE/360 setup and friends & family's setups, that WMAPro 5.1 audio in a WMV is transcoded on the fly to Dolby Digital 5.1 by the Xbox 360 for output over your fibre TOSLink connector to be decoded by your DD5.1 amp.

The 360 actually has 3 options in the audio setup for TOSLink output - stereo, DD5.1, or DD5.1 and WMAPro.

If you set it to the last option, your Amp will need to decode WMAPro audio natively.

Also note: I have had (and continue to have) quality issues with the output of DVD-WMV (I have beta tested it since the early days). If you check the DVD-WMV forums, I have posted a guide on using TMPGEnc Express, the TMPGEnc AC3 plugin & Slysoft's AnyDVD to re-encode DVD's to WMV with WMAPro 5.1 audio. Whilst this is the paid route, the output is far and away superior and as long as you follow my guide, pretty much foolproof.

http://www.dvd-wmv.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=9

Regards,
Shane.

[odgregg]

Also note: I have had (and continue to have) quality issues with the output of DVD-WMV (I have beta tested it since the early days). If you check the DVD-WMV forums, I have posted a guide on using TMPGEnc Express, the TMPGEnc AC3 plugin & Slysoft's AnyDVD to re-encode DVD's to WMV with WMAPro 5.1 audio. Whilst this is the paid route, the output is far and away superior and as long as you follow my guide, pretty much foolproof.

http://www.dvd-wmv.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=9

I followed your guide a few weeks ago, works perfectly for DVDs :-)

I have had issues trying to convert some DivX's with 5.1 AC3 using the same method, TMPGenc just can't see the AC3 sound. I had to convert them to VOB files first so that it looked like a DVD, then I could convert it to WMV+WMAPro 5.1 successfully. Unfortunately that meant the video was recoded twice (DivX->MPEG2->WMV).

However that was with an older version of TMPGenc Xpress, I wonder if version 4 would convert a DivX+AC3 correctly?

[scritch]

I followed your guide a few weeks ago, works perfectly for DVDs :-)

I have had issues trying to convert some DivX's with 5.1 AC3 using the same method, TMPGenc just can't see the AC3 sound. I had to convert them to VOB files first so that it looked like a DVD, then I could convert it to WMV+WMAPro 5.1 successfully. Unfortunately that meant the video was recoded twice (DivX->MPEG2->WMV).

However that was with an older version of TMPGenc Xpress, I wonder if version 4 would convert a DivX+AC3 correctly?

Glad the guide worked for you!

Yeah - with AVI's (xvid or divx) with AC3 TMPGEnc can't pull the AC3 out itself. to do this, you can use VirtualDubMod (free program - do a search via google) to extract the raw AC3 file (*.ac3), then when you choose the AVI file to input it will list that AVI for both Video and Audio - you can then tell TMPGEnc to load the AC3 you extracted as the audio and it will encode fine.

Regards,
Shane.

[odgregg]

Glad the guide worked for you!

Yeah - with AVI's (xvid or divx) with AC3 TMPGEnc can't pull the AC3 out itself. to do this, you can use VirtualDubMod (free program - do a search via google) to extract the raw AC3 file (*.ac3), then when you choose the AVI file to input it will list that AVI for both Video and Audio - you can then tell TMPGEnc to load the AC3 you extracted as the audio and it will encode fine.

Regards,
Shane.

Yeah, I've used VirtualDub before, just hadn't got round to trying it in this case. I just wish they're was an all in one solution for converting to WMV :-)

[max_fenig]

There is nothing publicly mentioned by Microsoft, but I can state from all of my own tests on my MCE/360 setup and friends & family's setups, that WMAPro 5.1 audio in a WMV is transcoded on the fly to Dolby Digital 5.1 by the Xbox 360 for output over your fibre TOSLink connector to be decoded by your DD5.1 amp.

The 360 actually has 3 options in the audio setup for TOSLink output - stereo, DD5.1, or DD5.1 and WMAPro.

If you set it to the last option, your Amp will need to decode WMAPro audio natively.

Oustanding!! Just what I was wanting to hear. The guys at work have been giving me stick over converting to WMV instead of DivX/XviD cos you couldn't use DD5.1, but now I can tell them you can

The Xbox 360 just gets better and better!

Hey I noted you have the Harmony Universal Remote for Xbox 360.. I was just checking this out online and thought it looked like the one to get for my rig. Can you post some details of your experience with it?